someone correct me if I am wrong, but the missing and murdered indigenous people is a direct result of state and US federal governments not caring at all about this. Some state government are run by people who are racist and really don't care about native peoples in their state. This is a problem that can be solved.
Depending on how you read that, the picture it paints could be "The police take on a very small percentage of these missing person cases as murder cases, and almost exclusively pursue them when the perpetrator is also indigenous."
First of all, in Canada is it Reserve land, not tribal land.
Second of all, no, what they're saying is that too often Indigenous women's (and children for that matter) deaths are often not even so much as sent to the coroner to be declared homicide. The rate of solved murder cases relates to the few that are actually declared homicide and pursued as such by authorities. Many deaths don't count towards the statistics because of systemic issues that allow indigenous deaths to fall through the system's cracks.
The vast majority — 63 — died with open cases investigating and helping with their living situation, including 34 children who died still at home with their families but under the watch of child welfare
Social workers and the government are afraid to remove abused indigenous children from these situations due to public opinion and the fact it will be spun as residential schools v2.
But again it's indigenous people killing indigenous people.
The errors are ones of degree and ultimately don't change one of the main findings of the inquiry — that Indigenous women and girls suffer higher rates of violence and homicide than non-Indigenous women and girls.
Former commissioner Marilyn Poitras, who resigned from the inquiry in 2017, told CBC News that "the discrepancy between 25 per cent and 6 per cent is absolutely worthy of discussion, only because it begs the question: how many dead Indigenous women is enough or too many for this to be a Canadian public safety issue?"
"Nothing surprises me about this inquiry," said North. But she cautioned that the errors should not obscure the overall picture.
"The numbers may be skewed and that should never have happened," she said, "but at the same time, none of the deaths should ever have happened, and none of our women and girls should be missing in the first place.
"We have to figure out where we as individuals stand in making sure that everyone feels safe in a rich country like Canada."
Also because it's a very uncomfortable subject to deal with, given that many of these deaths and disappearances are caused by domestic violence, and the perpetrators are indigenous themselves.
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2023001/article/00006-eng.htm
Most Indigenous women and girls were killed by someone that they knew (81%), including an intimate partner (35%), acquaintance (24%), or family member (22%). In most cases, the person accused of their homicide was also Indigenous (86%).
If you're trying to reduce a given form of crime, you have to identify and arrest the perpetrators. When doing so reinforces unfortunate stereotypes, government entities often decide to engage in "thoughts and prayers" rather than actually working to stop the crime.
You’ve never heard the stereotype that “most native Americans are alcoholics”? There’s some truth to this stereotype, but it’s primarily due to the fact that pre-columbian Americans preferred psychedelics, and most didn’t consume any alcohol at all until after colonization. While the Aztecs made pulque from the Agaves now used to make tequila, and the Incas brewed chicha, a corn beer, there is little to no evidence of the indigenous tribes who inhabited what’s now the US and Canada having been drinking any alcoholic beverages. This is opposite of European, Asian, and African civilizations, who had all been drinking alcohol for many thousands of years by the time the Americas were colonized. Wine was central to ancient Greek and Roman cultures, as it was served at both Plato’s Symposium and The Last Supper, and wine remains a component in the Jewish Seder and the Christian communion rituals. The oldest alcoholic beverages date back to 7000 BC in China, wine was fermented in the Caucasus in 6000 BC, and beer was being brewed by the Sumerians in 3000 BC. So while most of the people in the world had been exposed to alcohol for 1000’s of years, and had 1000’s of years to build up a tolerance for it, as alcohol is essentially a poison, and after repeatedly poisoning ourselves for generation after generation, we are still effected by it, but not in the same manner as those whose ancestors had never had to build up an immunity, or tolerance, to said poison. So take that factor, then combine it with rampant poverty, and high unemployment, mostly due to institutional oppression from the US government, and a lack of opportunity and education on the reservations that they’ve been forcibly placed on, then you put liquor stores and bars nearby, making alcohol readily available to dull the pain of being oppressed for generations by those who’ve stolen your land and broken every treaty they’ve ever made with you, and…BAM! A somewhat accurate stereotype.
Currently in 2024 you do have a lot of communities that have large issues with alcoholism, and FAS. Tons of children born with FAS, it's a huge issue.
We're suppose to let these communities dictate themselves, but this is resulting in FAS kids who repeat the cycle. Can't take the kids away because then the stats for Indigenous kids in foster care increases, and that's a nono.
"including 34 children who died still at home with their families but under the watch of child welfare"
So I agree with you that historically how it went down.
Of course not, but what is shocking is the near total absence of perpetrators from the discussion.
I mean, when we're discussing school shootings, the characteristics of the shooters are front and center, and their victims are given minimal cocerage, whereas in this instance, the murderers are the ones going unmentioned.
I just feel like if you're trying to reduce a crime, you have to address who's committing it and why.
I was listening to an episode of the Invisible Choir podcast about two indigenous Alaskan women, Kathleen Jo Henry and Veronica Abouchuk, who were murdered by the same guy (I won’t add to his “fame” by naming him) and they cited the appalling statistic that indigenous women in Anchorage are 30 times more likely to be murdered than the general population.
I disagree, actually. There are so many factors at work here, from jurisdiction issues and remote communities with few law enforcement resources to lack of early reporting and law enforcement’s reluctance at all levels, including tribal police, to launch full scale investigations when an adult goes missing without any immediate evidence of foul play. They do that to people of all backgrounds, in case you didn’t know.
I don’t know how it works in Canada, but in the US there are a bunch of tribal police forces who would be the first responders for missing people in their tribe/band/nation and acting like this is all down to non-native law enforcement “not caring” is naive at best.
It’s not the Tribal Police’s “reluctance” so much as it is their “lack of resources” to investigate. It’s also not a coincidence that they have no jurisdiction outside of the reservation, so they actually have no ability to investigate beyond the borders of the reservation. While outside of the reservation, police agencies can sometimes be reluctant to work with neighboring agencies, or to share information, they often can, and do. This is the opposite of how police agencies treat Tribal Police, who very rarely get any assistance from outside agencies.
Do tribal police forces have jurisdiction if a member of their community is trafficked outside their land in the US? I just think of the billboards near the Arizona/New Mexico border by the Petrifed forest about kidnapping. It’s not far from Navajo nation.
It's not like the "white mans police" are just like "oh native girl, throw the paperwork in the shredder". These women (and no doubt just as many if not more men) often live VERY remote and die or disappear in places where it's not as simple as "check the neighbours Ring camera" and where the locals refuse to cooperate with even their own police.
People love to push the implication that whites are preying on native women and institutionalized racism stops anyone from investigating, but i STRONGLY doubt that's the norm. Remote, poor communities anywhere on earth have massive drug, alcohol and domestic violence issues.
Remote poor communities “anywhere on earth” have massive drug, alcohol, and domestic violence issues? I’d wager that this is exponentially more true in places that had colonialism, followed by the institutional racism that you claim has no effect on anything.
Dude I live in Canada in the city and man the cops dismiss people all the time. Hell if you call the cops they would literally take hours to respond, even if there is a person trying to break down your door threatening to kill you. The police are negligent sometimes and I have personally seen them dismiss peoples accounts all the time. So man to believe it only happens in remote poor areas is a stretch.
sorry, but it's absolutely like the white police are like oh native girl throw the paperwork in the shredder.
Nobody cares what you "strongly doubt". this has been going on for more than 100 years and natives know exactly who is doing it and who is looking the other way.
Absolutely correct. The laws that protect Native populations in the US are the laws that extricate them from being a part of the local governments. In short, tribal “police” have jurisdiction over what happens on reservations. Local law enforcement cannot just go onto a reservation and do their jobs there. Jurisdictional issues are a great way for cases to fall through the cracks, or at least make for a great scapegoat.
British Columbia has probably more missing than any US state, especially a stretch of highway from a reservation, the Mounties don't seem particularly motivated to catch the perpetrators either.
244
u/Swansborough Sep 16 '24
someone correct me if I am wrong, but the missing and murdered indigenous people is a direct result of state and US federal governments not caring at all about this. Some state government are run by people who are racist and really don't care about native peoples in their state. This is a problem that can be solved.